Charmaine Taijeron, 28, is being held on suspicion of murder after police say she conspired with four other people to burglarize the home where her estranged husband lived Tuesday morning. Her husband fatally stabbed the intruder in self-defense, police said.
(Pittsburg Police Department)

PITTSBURG -- Despite police working around the clock Friday to solidify their case and file charges against four people suspected of arranging a staged robbery that ended in a fatal stabbing, three of the four were released from jail Friday evening.

Pittsburg police, along with the county's district attorney, failed to file charges by 5 p.m. Friday to keep Taijeron and her alleged accomplices behind bars.

But even though they are out now, it does not mean they are free from possible prosecution in the coming weeks.

Police said Taijeron plotted with four other people, including her boyfriend, to stage the home-invasion robbery in an effort to intimidate her estranged husband into moving out of the apartment the couple had once shared.

Instead, police said, her husband confronted the burglars with a gun he owned, wrestled with one man, and fatally stabbed him. Robert Earl Lindsey, 54, who had a lengthy criminal history and was an uncle to two of the suspects, died at the scene.

The three men police said conspired with her to plan and execute the robbery -- her alleged boyfriend, Matt Terrell Parker, his brother, Charles, and associate Salgado were arrested along with Taijeron after police interviewed them Tuesday.

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All four were originally booked on suspicion of murder, but officials added a parole violation charge for Salgado that kept him in jail even though murder charges were not filed by the Friday afternoon deadline, when a 72-hour window in which to charge the suspects closed.

The bungled burglary took place Tuesday morning, when Lindsey, Salgado and Charles Parker allegedly used a spare key Taijeron had given them to enter the apartment in the 100 block of East Leland Road. Charles Parker later told Bay Area News Group from jail that he was enticed by the prospect of stealing marijuana plants Taijeron had said were in the house.

As they attempted to enter the apartment, Taijeron's husband retrieved a gun he owned from a back room. He confronted the burglars and physically fought with Lindsey, dropping his gun before he grabbed a knife and stabbed Lindsey in the back, killing him.

Taijeron's husband, who had recently learned of his wife's infidelity, did not know of the plot, killed Lindsey in self-defense and was not arrested, police said. The couple's two children, ages five and eight, were not home at the time of the attack.

Pittsburg police Lt. Ron Raman said Friday morning that investigators were working around the clock to assemble evidence to submit to the District Attorney's Office. He noted that it was a unique, complex case, with police attempting to show the suspects were responsible for Lindsey's death under the state's provocative acts doctrine, which holds that anyone involved in the commission of a felony can be charged with murder if that felony results in a death.

Contra Costa County deputy district attorney Barry Grove said Thursday that he expected to review the case sometime next week.